Should the Flood Survivors of Sandy Relocate?

Sunday, November 4th, 2012

Homes directly across from 17th Street Canal breach in Lakeview neighborhood of New Orleans. Photo/Bill Roussarie

Before Hurricane Sandy struck the northeast, the prevailing attitude in Washington, D.C. and much of America toward Katrina survivors was that hurricanes and flooding were New Orleans’ problem.

Myself, a resident of that cultural gem, I was considered partly responsible for my losses when the government-built levees broke and flooded 80 percent of New Orleans. Why do I live in a region vulnerable to hurricane storm surge? Why should I be America’s burden?

Forget the fact that with logic like that, everyone who lives in a region that sees events measured by some sort of scale — be it Fujita, Richter or Saffir-Simpson — should pack up and leave. Nonetheless, compassion for Katrina survivors was lacking, many of whom were blamed for not heeding Governor Kathleen Blanco’s order to evacuate.

But I predict that Sandy will change that.

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Sandy Speaks on Hurricane Sandy

Tuesday, October 30th, 2012

Sandy Rosenthal speaking to reporters in April 2009

When the Governor of Massachusetts recommended that all college classes be cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, he also canceled my presentation at my alma mater.

I had been invited to Mount Holyoke College to tell the student body about my leadership of Levees.org which I founded in New Orleans after Katrina. Spoiler alert, the hurricane’s name and mine being the same are a coincidence.

I did manage to catch one of the last planes out of ghostly quiet Bradley Airport in Connecticut that morning and began this post since I was lucky enough to get a plane with Gogo internet.

There are things I have observed in hurricane preparation that give me encouragement. But there were also some things which filled me with dismay.

A disturbing site was folks in New York City using sandbags to protect valuable property and infrastructure in one of the most densely populated areas in the nation. Flood protection for the great city of New York ought to be built to a 10,000 year standard, not the mandated one-size-fits-all 100 year protection.

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AP issues correction to instance of Katrina shorthand

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012

Today, the Associated Press issued a correction to one of its recent stories after Levees.org found an error.

In an October 13 story on New Orleans’s criminal justice system, the AP stated incorrectly that a report by the Philadelphia-based PFM Group said operations at New Orleans’s Criminal District Court was “severely hampered by Hurricane Katrina, which closed the court building and displaced defendants, witnesses and victims in the main basin of New Orleans.”

Ever vigilant to instances of wrong harmful Katrina ‘shorthand’, Levees.org obtained a copy of the report. We are not aware that a hurricane closed buildings and displaced defendants, witnesses and victims.

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